Cenozoic glaciations

Blum J. D. (1997) The effect of late Cenozoic glaciation and tectonic uplift on silicate weathering rates and the marine Sr/ Sr record. In Tectonic Uplift and Climate (ed. W. Ruddiman). Plenum, New York, pp. 259-288. 

Denton GH, Armstrong RL, Stuiver M (1970) Late Cenozoic glaciation in Antarctica The record in the McMurdo Sound region. Antarctic J US 5 15-21... 

Shackleton, N.J. and Kennett, J.P. (1975a) Paleotemperature history of the Cenozoic and the initiation of Antarctic glaciation oxygen and carbon isotope analyses in DSDP Sites 277, 279, and 281. Initial Reports of the DSDP, 29, Washington, D.C. U.S. Gov. Printing Office, pp. 743-755. 

Further support for the weathering hypothesis for Late Ordovician glaciation comes from the strontium isotope record. A multimillion-year decline in the marine record of Sr/ Sr in limestones is reversed in the early Late Ordovician (Veizer et al., 1999), a likely consequence of collisional tectonics that initiated at this time and continued (as did the rise in Sr/ Sr) through the Silurian (Richter et al, 1992). The increase (from 0.7078 to 0.7088) rivals the Cenozoic rise, which has been attributed to the Himalayan uplift and associated with the progressive cooling leading to Quaternary glaciation (Raymo et al, 1988). 

Raymo ME (1994b) The initiation of northern hemisphere glaciation. Ann Rev Earth Planet Sci 22 353-383 Raymo ME, Ruddiman WF (1992) Tectonic forcing of late Cenozoic climate. Nature 359 117-122 Raymo ME, Ruddiman WF, Froelich PN (1988) Influence of late Cenozoic mountain building on ocean geochemical cycles. Geology 16 649-653... 

A final point to be made is that the spherules must have been deposited on the surface of the East Antarctic ice sheet, which means that East Antarctica was glaciated at the time (i.e., two to three million years ago). Therefore, the terrestrial age of the meteorite-ablation spherules is consistent with the evidence that Cenozoic volcanoes in the Transantarctic Mountains (e.g., Mt. Early and Sheridan Bluff) erupted through glacial ice from which it follows that the glaciation of East Antarctica started during the late Oligocene/early Miocene perhaps as early as 25 million years ago. However, none of the ice cores that have been drilled in East or West Antarctica have encountered ice that is as old as the meteorite ablation spherules in the icefield near the Allan Hills. 

Drewry DJ (1972) The contribution of radio-echo sounding to the investigation of Cenozoic tectonics and glaciation in Antarctica. In Price RJ, Sugden DE (eds) Polar geomorphology. Inst Brit Geol Spec Publ 4 43—58 Drewry DJ (1973) Sub-ice relief and geology of East Antarctica. 

Fig. 19.1 CIROS-1 amd MSSTS-1 in McMurdo Sound were drilled in order to recover cores of the sediment that would reveal the history of glaciation of the Transantarctic Mountains in southern Victoria Land during the Cenozoic. A third core (CIROS-2) was drilled a short distance in front of the floating ice tongue of the Ferrar Glacier (not shown). CIROS-1 reached a depth of 702 m ending in beds of sand and conglomerate dated at 36.2 Ma (Eocene) (Adapted from Barrett et al. 1989)...

The history of glaciation of southern Victoria Land as we know it relies heavily on isotopic dating of Cenozoic... 

---